The invention relates generally to the field of surgical instruments and, in particular, to an endoscopic instrument having at one end a headpiece that can be manipulated from an opposite end.
Endoscopic surgery involves accessing a patient's organs through a discrete opening. For example, laparoscopic surgery, which is a species of endoscopic surgery, involves accessing a patient's peritoneal cavity by way of an endoscope passing through the patient's abdominal wall. Other endoscopic techniques include bronchoscopy, colonoscopy, and esophagoscopy.
Depending on the specific endoscopic technique employed, the discrete opening providing access to the patient's organs may either be surgically created or naturally occurring. For example, in the case of laparoscopy an opening is surgically created in the patient's abdominal wall. On the other hand, in the case of peroral endoscopy, an endoscope is passed through a patient's mouth. In either case, the advantage of endoscopic surgery is found in providing access to the patient's organs without the need for a long incision and its attendant complications.
Endoscopes provide a conduit for the passage into a patient of various surgical instruments such as, for example, forceps, lasers, stents, and cameras. But, since endoscopes typically have small diameters to minimize the complications associated with introducing them into a patient, they limit the size of the instrument that can be passed through them.
Another problem associated with known endoscopic techniques is that of a surgeon not being able to manipulate adequately the internally disposed end of the endoscopic instrument. Accordingly, a surgeon using known endoscopic instruments is limited to accessing in a patient only the small area aligned with the endoscope's longitudinal access. In many applications, however, it is desirable for the surgeon to work in an area of the patient which is angularly offset from the endoscope's axis. With known endoscopic techniques, this can only be achieved by manipulating the entire endoscope.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide a surgical tool for operating within a body cavity through a small diameter opening.
It is another object of the invention to provide such an instrument, the internally disposed end of which can be manipulated from outside of the body cavity.